Milwaukee health commissioner pick Jeanette Kowalik advances at City Hall
Milwaukee may soon have a new leader for its troubled Health Department.
Jeanette Kowalik, a Milwaukee native now working at a Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit, won the unanimous approval of a Common Council committee Tuesday.
She is expected to be confirmed as health commissioner by the full council Wednesday.
Kowalik promised to be transparent and accountable to city leaders and the public during her testimony at City Hall.
"The days of operating in the dark will be abolished," Kowalik told members of the Public Safety and Health Committee.
Kowalik also called for the establishment of a Board of Health for the department, which would be an oversight body composed of community members and clinical representatives.
She said her priorities would include combating the city's lead crisis, reducing infant mortalit, lowering rates of sexually transmitted infections, trying to erase racial disparities and improving staff morale.
"Many staff are hurting and need support to reconnect with their passion and our mission as a department," she said. "I am committed to healing."
Kowalik did not detail her past financial struggles — which included filing for bankruptcy — but talked about struggling to work and go to school while raising a child.
"I overcame poverty and challenges associated with being a woman of color in this city," she said.
Kowalik added that she was a single parent who used benefit programs like Women, Infants and Children (WIC), Section 8 housing and Wisconsin Works (W-2).
"Education was my way out of poverty," she said.
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Committee members praised Kowalik during Tuesday's meeting.
"I was truly inspired by the level of passion, the level of commitment, and the foresight of where this Health Department could go," said Ald. Chantia Lewis, one of two aldermen who served on the committee that picked her as a finalist.
Mayor Tom Barrett appointed Kowalik to lead the agency in July, but his appointment is subject to council approval.
Kowalik testified at the committee meeting following a tense exchange between Interim Commissioner Patricia McManus and some aldermen.
McManus opened her testimony by describing the chaos she encountered when she took over the department in February — saying there were missing documents, staff members essentially trying to sabotage each other and racial divisions in the agency.
But Ald. Mark Borkowski questioned how much progress had been made during her tenure. He specifically criticized the city's efforts to clean up homes with lead-poisoned children living in them.
Borkowski cited concerns raised in a recent Milwaukee Journal Sentinel article, which found only five homes with lead-poisoned children living in them were made lead-safe by the City of Milwaukee during the first five months of the year.
"I feel a little misled," he told her. "I thought we were out of the woods. I thought we were safe."
McManus said it has taken months to set up an effective system to clean up homes in a way that would meet the requirements of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD).
"There was no infrastructure," she said.
McManus also said the city's slow hiring process has also hampered efforts to improve the Health Department.
Those five homes with lead-poisoned children were among 46 properties where lead hazards were removed by or under the direction of the city between January and early June, according to information obtained through an open records request. The Health Department did not respond to questions last week about how many homes have been cleaned up during the months of June, July and August.
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McManus on Tuesday said she believes as many as 11 homes with lead-poisoned children living in them have been cleaned up this year.
The Milwaukee Health Department has been struggling for months, if not years.
Bevan Baker, the city's former health commissioner, was ousted in January after news broke about problems with the agency's programs aimed at preventing lead poisoning among Milwaukee children.
After Tuesday's vote, Kowalik pledged to be independent as she tries to turn around the agency.
"This is about public health, this is about facts, this is about science. So that's the position that I'm taking on," she said. "Being very transparent and accountable is going to be the only way that we'll be able to move forward."